BBC: Britain´s Crimes of 'Honour'

Blanked-out windows, high metal railings, CCTV cameras and monitors - this is a building with high security.
I have come to one of a handful of refuges in Britain especially for Asian women and their children.
They
are victims of violence in the name of so-called "honour", and they
have all run away from a husband's home where the extended family has
made their lives a misery.
In Asian and Middle Eastern communities, controlling women's behaviour is seen as key to the honour of the family.
Having
a boyfriend, wearing make-up or Western clothes, refusing to marry
someone chosen by your family or leaving an abusive husband - these can
all be seen as dishonourable acts.
All the women I meet have put their lives in danger by coming to a
refuge. They are frightened at first in front of the Panorama camera but
I reassure them we will not show their faces and gradually they open up
with their shocking stories.
They all came from Pakistan as
young brides, had their passports taken away and were often locked up,
not even allowed to learn English.
They suffered in silence, cut
off from the outside world. They were treated as virtual slaves, doing
all the housework, and none of them understood what they had done to
deserve such treatment.
Qawal had freedom in Pakistan but that
all changed when she came to England and was beaten not only by her
husband but his mother as well.
"My mother-in-law hit me in the
face so hard that blood poured from my ear," she told me. "I didn't know
anything about the outside world, I couldn't speak the language and
didn't know anything about money."
When Qawal hurt her leg after
being thrown down the stairs, her mother-in-law came with her to the
doctor so she was afraid to ask for help.
"They kept me a prisoner in the house. Once I was locked in the upstairs bedroom for 13 days," said Qawal.
"I thought the only way I am going to get out is through the upstairs window or by killing myself. I just wanted to end it."
Qawal finally escaped, barefoot in the snow, and ended up in the refuge. The only way out
The
suicide rate amongst south Asian women in Britain is three times the
national average, as women who see no other way out of an abusive
marriage take what they see as the only way out and kill themselves.
And there are between 10 and 12 cases of "honour" killing a year, all of them characterised by extreme violence.
Often several relatives are involved and the murder is sanctioned by the wider family.
Women
in the Kurdish and Iranian communities are also controlled by "honour".
I met a young Kurdish woman, Leila, who came to the UK to join her
husband, who turned out to be violent and unstable.
"He put his
hands around my throat and said he would kill me and cut me in pieces
and put me in a rubbish bag - no one would know," said Leila softly.
She
ended up in hospital but she was pregnant and returned to her husband
until things got so bad the police were called, and she was able to
escape. But running away has not ended the threat to her life.
"The
dishonourable thing I did was to go into a refuge because in Kurdistan a
refuge is seen as a very bad place", Leila told me.

Victims spoke to Panorama, with their identities concealed

No one really knows how many "honour" crimes there are in this
country. The Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO),
has recently carried out a survey of police forces statistics, which
found there are 2,823 "honour" crimes a year. That's nearly eight a day.
But a quarter of forces did not respond and many crimes go unreported, so the figure is far higher.
There
is now a national helpline for victims of domestic violence caused by
"honour". Calls to the service have doubled in the four years since it
was set up, to 500 calls a month.
At the helpline in an anonymous
office building, I met a volunteer who is the victim of an "honour"
crime. Neina was disowned by her family for running away from her
husband when he beat her.
"Every time he hit me… my parents would say: 'Why did you raise your voice to him? You know you deserved it,'" said Neina.
Neina
knows what motivated her parents. "For them to be disowned in society
is a matter of honour for them. It's easier to sacrifice a son or a
daughter than it is to sacrifice a society or your extended family, who
you are trying to please all the time."
Neina nodded when I asked
her if she was ever afraid she would be killed. "A lot of times, even
now... my Dad has already said it to me: 'If you leave him (your
husband) you are going to make me do something I don't want to do,'" she
said.
Although they were still afraid, all the women I spoke to were determined never to go back to their abusive families.
All
of them wanted to make a new start in Britain, get an education and
raise their children to reject the code of "honour" which had blighted
their mothers lives. Source